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A short time ago, in an archive a few states away, I had the pleasure of exploring the far reaches of space—as represented in video games. I am working on a dissertation project examining the role of outer space in the history of the American video game industry. This has meant a lot of rewarding hours spent poring over design documents, reading internal memos, hazarding the tunnels to the fabled City of Myster  y in Vanguard, and smashing millions of […]

Continue Reading about Space to Play: A Cosmic History of Video Games Published on:
May 24, 2019

Get out your library cards and alert your book club! With three new inductees to the National Toy Hall of Fame in November, it’s time for another edition of Toy Stories: Tales of the Games and Toys We Love. Last year, I recommended books about five Toy Hall of Fame Inductees and their inventors. This year, dive into four more “old-timers” and one new inductee with this fresh reading list!
Jump Rope, Class of 2000

For generations, American girls have spent their […]

Continue Reading about Even More Stories from the Toy Hall of Fame Published on:
May 17, 2019

Both playing and playing with language are naturally occurring, entertaining activities for children. Regardless of the context, children’s play abilities and language abilities seem to develop together, with each enhancing the development of the other. So, whether engaged in pretend scenarios or interacting with some of the many toys designed to facilitate play with words and print, children at play are gaining an understanding of all elements of language (semantic, syntactic, phonetic, morphological, and pragmatic) that will assist them in […]

Continue Reading about Play and Language: A Reciprocal Relationship Published on:
May 10, 2019

Every year The Strong welcomes new inductees into the World Video Game Hall of Fame, and this year the inductees are Colossal Cave Adventure, Microsoft Windows Solitaire, Mortal Kombat, and Super Mario Kart. It’s a fabulous class, one that well embodies the criteria for selection of icon-status, longevity, geographical reach, and influence.
The process for selecting the new inductees begins with a list of twelve finalists chosen by museum staff. This year those finalists were:

Candy Crush Saga
Centipede
Colossal Cave Adventure
Dance Dance Revolution
Half-Life
Microsoft […]

Continue Reading about 2019 Class of the World Video Game Hall of Fame Published on:
May 2, 2019

Born in racially segregated South Carolina in 1948, Louvenia (Kitty) Black Perkins grew up playing with white dolls gifted by her mother’s employers. In the 1960s, Black Perkins attended an all-black school, Carver High School, where she excelled in art. Upon graduation, she received the gift of a trip to visit her aunt and uncle in California. There Black Perkins put her name on a wait list for commercial art classes at Los Angeles Trade Technical College and, in the […]

Continue Reading about Kitty Black Perkins: The African American Designer behind the First Black Barbie Published on:
April 26, 2019

There are very few global “cartographic events” in human history—feats of transportation that require the immediate making and dispersal of new maps. Columbus’s arrival in the New World was one. The moon landing was another. To this short list we might add Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic crossing. In 1927, he became the first to fly alone from the continental United States to continental Europe (New York–Paris).

Lindbergh’s various flight exploits are often and understandably overshadowed by his future dabbling with fascism and […]

Continue Reading about Transatlantic Play Published on:
April 18, 2019

Being on the Collections team at The Strong museum means that there’s never a dull moment. We are continually receiving boxes and boxes (and sometimes pallets) of toy, game, doll, and electronic game-related objects, as well as related ephemera and papers. A unique artifact being cataloged will catch the eye of a colleague, and a discussion of its significance (or a fond trip down memory lane) will ensue. Occasionally, a large collection may take quite some time to fully catalog […]

Continue Reading about Pinball History in the Archives Published on:
April 12, 2019

In The Strong museum’s storage, there are five identical baby girl dolls, all dressed alike in pretty pastel colors. Their painted brown hair, curled lashes, and red lips, might make you think they were an average bunch of composition dolls from the early 1900s. The first time I laid eyes on them, however, I knew exactly who these girls were.
When I was in high school, one of the teenage phases I went through was watching and re-watching documentaries […]

Continue Reading about The Quintuplets Story: From Baby Girls to Baby Dolls Published on:
April 5, 2019

“Oh, let’s do the kitchen,” said Mary. “There are so many interesting things in the kitchen.” My Doll’s House (1932)
In August 2018, I received a research fellowship from The Strong. Thanks to The Strong’s support, I could see, touch, and “playʺ with the kitchen toys that girls in postwar America might have played with. The kitchen toys! But why the kitchen toys? Aren’t they just miniature kitchens and utensils? As an adult reflecting on my experiences as a […]

Continue Reading about Rethinking the Kitchen in Girls’ Play Published on:
March 28, 2019